May 13, 2000 / Sydney Morning Herald / James Woodford, Environment Writer
Australian scientists will, according to this story, this year grow hundreds
of millions of genetically modified plants in secret trial plots on private
and public land throughout Australia.
The story says that in one experiment alone, involving 1,200 sites, the plan
is to grow more than a billion canola plants and will result in engineered
seeds being exported.
The story adds that there is no legislative framework governing the genetic
work of these multinational companies, and neighbours to these sites do not
have to be notified.
When members of the public contact the non-statutory body charged with
approving trials of genetically engineered organisms to find out where these
crops are, they are told it is commercially sensitive information. The
Genetic Manipulation Advisory Committee has already, in NSW alone,
recommended trials and commercialisation of what the story says is more than
a billion genetically modified plants, primarily cotton and canola.
Local councils are notified that trials are taking place in their shires and
State Government agencies such as the Environment Protection Authority and
NSW Agriculture are also told.
But a spokesman for the EPA was cited as saying these notifications were not
compiled into a central file, and the authority examined the advice only
from the perspective of whether the trials had the potential to pollute in a
traditional sense.
Dr T.J. Higgins, a program leader in the CSIRO Division of Plant Industries,
will, the story says, plant 400,000 genetically modified pea plants at Wagga
Wagga this year. Each contains genes that confer resistance to a pest - the
pea weevil - that devastates legume growers.
From the one-hectare plot, his team hopes to harvest up to two tonnes of
seed. About one tonne is to be used to feed 400 chickens to assess whether
the genetic modification is toxic to animals.
Next season Dr Higgins will plant 10 hectares with 4 million plants of the
weevil-resistant peas - enough to produce 20 tonnes of seed able to save
money for farmers struggling to beat pests. If all goes well, Australians
will be eating his peas sometime in 2003 or 2004.
Dr Higgins was quoted as saying it was crucial that legislation be "attached
to the trials. I think legislation is needed because people do have concerns
about it and want to be - need to be - reassured." The story adds that
Higgins personal approach to whether the exact location of trials should be
revealed is "to be open". But modified crops overseas and one experiment
with pineapples in Queensland have been vandalised.
In an extremely large experiment this year involving more than a billion
plants, Aventis Crop Science will be planting genetically modified canola in
every State in about 100 locations.
Aventis's public affairs manager Ms Naomi Stevens was cited as saying the
total area will be about 1,200 hectares and that about 30 NSW local
government areas are nominated for involvement in the trials, adding, "We
have to have an isolation area of 400 metres between our trial and the
nearest commercial crop."
The story says that Monsanto has another genetically modified canola, which
it hopes to plant on 60 sites across the continent, including in 26 NSW
local government areas.
Agriculture Western Australia will also be growing 99 million genetically
modified cotton plants in the Ord River region of the Kimberley.
The executive director of the Australian Grains Council, Mr Neil Fisher, was
cited as saying his organisation had "guarded optimism" about genetically
modified crops, but wanted faster action on the establishment of a
regulatory regime.
The chairwoman of the Genetic Manipulation Advisory Committee, Professor
Nancy Millis, hoped a bill would come before Federal Parliament in this
session.
Until then, the director of the Gene Ethics Network, Mr Bob Phelps, was
quoted as saying there should be a freeze on all releases, adding,
"Farmers' livelihoods are at risk."
(posted without permission)
